Color, yellow, red, brown; horse, ox, calf, sheep, goat, dog, cat,
bird. In disease: pale yellow, with water in excess; deep yellow, red,
brown with solids in excess, urobiline, biliverdin, hæmoglobin.
Extraneous colors. Bilharzia. Translucency: Turbidity: horse,
ruminants, carnivora, pig. In disease, horse, other animals.
Consistency, viscous, stringy, tarry; odor, horse, dog, cat,
ammoniacal, fœtid, drug odor. Specific gravity, estimate of solids;
reaction, acid, alkaline, neutral; morbid chemical changes, sodium
chloride, phosphate, alkaline, earthy, indican, urea, uric acid,
hippuric acid, phenol, creatinin, acetone, oxalic acid, allantoin,
xanthin, hypoxanthin, cyanuric acid, leucin, albumen, glucose, bile
salts and pigments, blood, hæmoglobin, epithelium, pus, casts.
=Color.= In estimating the color we must note the various shades of
yellow, red and brown and compare these with the normal in different
genera of animals, on different food and water, and in different
conditions of health. Grades of color may be stated as follows:
=Yellow=: Pale, clear and deep yellows.
=Red=: Reddish yellow, yellowish red, and red.
=Brown=: Brownish red, reddish brown and brownish black.
=Color of Normal Urine.= This varies with the species of animal, food,
quantity of water drunk, and time of retention in the bladder.
=Horse=: Urine is normally clear yellow, brownish yellow, or deep citron
yellow, and the color is deepened by rich and abundant food (excess of
solids) and by exposure to the air (changes in pigments). It may be
sulphur white and sedimentary from precipitation of CaCO_{2} when on
green food.
=Ox, Calf, Sheep and Goat=: Normal urine clear yellow to wine yellow. In
the ox especially it is a pale straw tint, but varies to a deep brown on
nitrogenous food (clover, peas, beans, cotton seed, lentils, pea or bean
straw). Color may be due to indican and sometimes to indicanin or indigo
blue, which explains the blue urine sometimes described.
=Dog=: Normal urine is yellow, straw colored, aniline yellow, honey
yellow, to brownish yellow in hot season or on dry nitrogenous food. Is
always relatively deeper than in ruminants.
=Cat=: Straw yellow to honey yellow, with variation as in the dog.
=Pig=: Very pale yellow, more highly colored on dry feeding, nuts, peas,
etc.
=Birds=: White or yellow, sedimentary. Mixed with fæces in cloaca.
=Color of Pathological Urine=: =Pale yellow= with excessive secretion
glycosuria, polyuria, cryptogamic polyuria, chronic interstitial
nephritis, under diuretics, or after excessive drinking. The free
secretion of a crisis in a fever is pale yellow.
=Deep yellow=, =deep red=, =deep brown color=, indicates excess of
urinary pigment (urobiline) and is deepened by nitric acid. This is seen
in all hyperthermias with suppressed or diminished secretion, in
privation of water, or food. This urine is _acid_ even in herbivora.
=Yellow=, =saffron yellow=, =brownish yellow=, =greenish=, =olive=, =or
brownish red= indicate the presence of bile pigments (biliverdin,
bilirubin) as in jaundice or cholyuria. Bile salts should be tested for.
A similar coloration may come from free consumption of carrots, or other
yellow pigmentary matters.
=Red=, =brownish red=, =blood red=, =or deep brown color= implies the
presence of blood or blood coloring matter in the urine (hæmaturia,
hæmoglobinuria). Exposed to the air this becomes brown or chocolate in
ratio with the amount of blood or blood pigment present. Some such cases
are complicated by blood clots.
Color due to Foreign Constituents.
=Bronze or black color= may come from injection of =phenic acid=.
=Deep green or olive green= may come from =tar=, =carbolic acid=,
=salol=, =creosote=, or =derivatives of benzine= taken in.
=Brownish green= comes from =thallin= and reddens with iron chloride.
=Brown or blood red= from =rhubarb= or =senna=.
=Purple red from santonin=, if alkaline (if acid, is reddish yellow).
=Red= from =madder= (it is alleged from indigo).
=Yellow= from =carrots=.
=Blue= (indigo blue) may occur in urine of horse or ox when exposed to
the air.
=Bluish green= will come from feeding =indigo=.
=White or yellow color= will result from the presence of =pus=.
=White, chylous urine= occurs with a hæmatozöon (=Bilharzia Crassa=) in
the blood of cattle.
=Translucency.= Urine may be passed clear and become turbid by standing.
The presence of colloids hinders precipitation and prevents clearing.
=Horse=: Urine is generally turbid, especially what has been long in the
bladder, and that which is last passed. The turbidity is largely due to
precipitation of calcium carbonate and bicarbonate, and increases on
green food, or if the liquid stands exposed to the air and is cooled.
Not unfrequently the salts are thrown down as fine spherical granules,
or there may be a white pultaceous mass. They are sometimes entangled in
extremely mobile cylindroid masses coming from the uriniferous tubes
during convalescence from fevers or during fasting. A fine pellicle on
the surface is normal in horse’s urine left in the air.
=Ox, Sheep and Goat=: Urine is passed clear. May become turbid through
the change of lime carbonate into bicarbonate in cattle but always more
slowly than in the horse.
=Carnivora=: Urine is passed clear but becomes turbid on decomposition,
or if concentrated. With excess of fat in the food it may become opaque
from floating oil globules, apart from the classic chyluria.
=Pig=: Fed on raw fresh vegetables the urine is clear, but if on cooked
or dried vegetables, and especially if nitrogenous, it may show opacity.
=Pathological=: The =horse’s= urine is limpid and acid in polyuria;
limpid and alkaline or neutral with modified phosphates. It may be
morbidly turbid from excess of lime phosphate or sulphate, urea or other
acid salts, exudates, leucocytes or pus. These usually indicate
nephritis. Mucus and muco-purulent exudate suggest pyelitis or pelvic
nephritis. Blood elements indicate nephritis, cystitis or urethritis.
Debris of kidney tissue may indicate tuberculosis; tumors, etc.
Turbidity in =other animals= than solipeds is abnormal: examine the
urine.
=Consistency of Urine.= Morbid urine may be gluey, sizy, syrupy, mucous,
oily. If a =horse’s= urine is scanty a =slight siziness= may be normal
and due to tenacious mucus from the pelvis of the kidney, and from the
solution of mucin and epithelium in the alkaline fluid. =Viscous=,
=sizy=, =stringy=, and =tarry= (=pitchy=) urine is found in pyelitis,
pyelo-nephritis, or cystic catarrh, but not in polyuria owing to the
presence of the solvent acid.
=Odor of Urine.= This is somewhat =aromatic= in =horse= and =ox=,
=disagreeable= in the =dog=, and =repulsively heavy= in the =cat=. With
polyuria the odor is less. If the urine has been =retained= and
=fermented= it is =ammoniacal=, if there are =ulcers= or =tumors= it is
=fœtid=, in =diabetes= it smells of =acetone=, after taking =turpentine=
it has a =violet odor=, and after phenic acid, camphor, ether and other
drugs it is variously modified.
=Specific Gravity of Urine= in ratio to water 1000:
Horse, 1020 to 1050 (1040)
Ox, 1025 „ 1045 (1030)
Sheep; Goat, 1015 „ 1065 (1040)
Dog, 1020 „ 1060 (1040)
Pig, 1005 „ 1015 (1010)
Cat, 1020 „ 1040 (1030)
In the horse the urine may be 1001 to 1010 in polyuria, in chronic
interstitial nephritis, and in a crisis of fever attended by diuresis.
It may be 1050 to 1060 in glycosuria. Undissolved solids that are merely
suspended in the urine do not affect its density.
A rough estimate of solids may be made by multiplying the last two
figures of a specific gravity expressed in four figures by 2.33. The
result approximates to the number of grammes of solids in 1000 cc.
=Chemical Reaction of Urine.= The liquid is tested by litmus paper, red
and blue, weakly impregnated. The normal reaction is determined by the
food: the urine of =carnivora= and =sucking herbivora= is =acid= turning
blue litmus red: the urine of =vegetable feeders= is _alkaline_ turning
reds blue. In the =horse= the =alkalinity= is mainly due to excess of
lime bicarbonate, passing, with standing, into lime carbonate, the
carbon dioxide being derived from organic acids (lactic, malic, citric,
etc.), by oxidation. The hippurates are also alkaline in reaction. In
=dogs= the acidity is due to lime and soda phosphates, sulphates, urates
and oxalates.
=Pathologically= we find the urine strongly =alkaline= from the
evolution of ammonia from urea, in fermentations occurring with
prolonged retention in the bladder or in cystitis. The urine is =acid=
even in herbivora in all fevers in which appetite is lost or seriously
impaired, and in which the metabolism is excessive.
=Chemical Changes in the Urine in Disease.= =Sodium Chloride=, is
present in large amount in health (horse 25 to 35 grammes, dog 0.25 to 5
grammes daily) is =diminished= in fever, anæmia, visceral and exudative
inflammations. It is =increased= during the absorption of false
membranes and exudates. It is thrown down by adding solution of nitrate
of silver, the curdy white precipitate being insoluble in nitric acid.
=Phosphates of lime, soda, potash and, scantily, of magnesia= are
normally present (horse 0.08 to 0.60 gramme phosphoric acid daily) and
are present in excess in digestive disorders and in malnutrition of
bones (rachitis, osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis). The =alkaline
phosphates= are very soluble and never precipitated. =Earthy phosphates=
dissolve in acid urine, but are precipitated from alkaline. To a little
of the urine add a few drops of acetic acid, followed by a few drops of
uranium acetate. A yellow precipitate of uranium and ammonium double
phosphate is thrown down.
=Indican= (C_{8}H_{7}NSO_{4}) is formed from indol which passes
successively through the forms of indoxyle and indoxylid
potassio-sulphate. This is normally present in the urine, the horse
excreting 1 to 2 grammes daily, the dog 0.15 gramme. It is present in
excess in intestinal indigestions, constituting indicanuria. It is
tested by adding a drop of muriatic acid and one of a solution of
chloride of lime to the urine, when it will show a blue ring, the depth
of which indicates the relative amount.
=Urea= (CON_{2}H_{4}) the principal waste product of nitrogenous matter,
is always present in considerable amount. The sound horse may eliminate
100 to 200 grammes daily, the dog 5 to 180 grammes. It is present in
excess in all fevers and inflammations unless urination is suspended or
impaired, in cryptogamic diuresis, in mellituria, uræmia, nephritis and
cystitis. Test: The addition to a filtered solution of urine, freed from
phosphates, of solution of acid nitrate of mercury, precipitates it as
nitrate of urea. A simpler test is to add to a drop or two of urine on a
glass slide a drop of nitric acid and heat gently. The nitrate of urea
is precipitated in the characteristic rhombic or hexagonal crystals as
seen under the microscope. Heat urea crystals in a test tube: biuret is
formed and ammonia escapes. Add a trace of a copper sulphate solution
and a few drops of a 20 per cent. solution of caustic potash: a rose-red
color is produced—the biuret reaction.
=Uric Acid= (C_{5}H_{4}N_{4}O_{3}). Traces only of this are found in the
normal herbivorous urine, yet it is more abundant when on a full dry
grain diet, on milk (suckling) or on animal food. The dog kept on animal
food has a large amount.
=Pathologically= it is produced in the dog and even in the horse in
fever, overwork and starvation, the animal living on his own tissues.
Interference with oxidation in the lungs seems to produce it as an
arrest in the transformation of albuminoids to urea. The neutral urate
of soda remains in solution: the acid urate of soda is precipitated.
_Test_: To the urine add one-fourth its volume of muriatic acid and set
aside for 24 hours in a cool place. On the bottom and sides of the glass
and on the surface of the liquid will be found the yellowish red
acicular crystals of uric acid.
=Hippuric Acid= (C_{9}H_{9}NO_{3}) is normally present in all urine, but
is especially abundant in that of herbivora. The horse eliminates 60 to
160 grammes daily. It has been found to be increased by feeding on
dandelion, carrots, clover, asparagus, apples, plums, benzoic acid, oil
of bitter almonds, toluol, cinnamic or kinic acid. It is absent in
sucking calves, and horses fed on grain devoid of husk. =Pathologically=
it is increased in hyperthermia, icterus, some liver diseases and
diseased kidneys. Test: Precipitate any albumen by nitric acid and
boiling, then add hydrochloric acid which precipitates the hippuric acid
in long needle-like crystals. Heated in a small glass tube it forms an
oily liquid, and heated to redness gives off an odor of hydrocyanic acid
(nitro-benzol) and carbon is left. This distinguishes alike from uric
acid and benzoic.
=Phenol= is produced by intestinal fermentation. The horse normally
excretes about 3 grammes daily. Pathologically it appears in excess in
indigestions, abscesses, softened discharging tubercle, pyæmia, and
septicæmia. Test: Dilute solutions of ferric salts give a blue
coloration.
=Creatinin=, a product of metabolism of albuminoids, is found especially
in the urine of carnivora and omnivora in health. It is pathologically
increased when oxidation is interfered with, as in diseases of the
lungs. Test: Add to the urine a very dilute solution of sodium
nitro-prusside and then drop by drop some solution of caustic soda, when
a ruby red color is shown and disappears again on boiling. Acetic acid
changes to blue.
=Acetone= (C_{3} H_{6} O) is found in the urine of healthy omnivora and
carnivora and increased by excess of nitrogenous food. Pathologically it
has been found in fevers with much blood change, in inanition, in
cancer, in indigestions, and auto-intoxications. Test: To several c c.
of urine add a few drops of iodo-potassic iodide solution and caustic
potash when iodoform will be abundantly precipitated with its
characteristic color and odor.
=Oxalic Acid= (C_{2} H_{2} O_{4}) appears to be secreted in small amount
by healthy kidneys and it may also come from the splitting up of uric
acid after secretion. It is augmented by feeding agents rich in oxalic
acid (beets, fresh beans, asparagus, tomatoes). Pathologically it
abounds in certain indigestions, and is associated with lameness and
emaciation. Test: Add lime water to the urine, and the white oxalate of
lime is precipitated.
=Allantoin= (C_{4}H_{6}N_{4}O_{3}) is found in the urine of sucklings
(calves) during the first few weeks of life, in pregnancy and when on a
meat diet. It diminishes with the increase of vegetable food.
=Xanthin= (C_{5}H_{4}N_{4}O_{2}) is found in urine as a result of
imperfect oxidation of nitrogenous matters especially, which would
otherwise pass into uric or hippuric acid. Its immediate antecedents in
such transformation are guanin and hypoxanthin or sarkin. It is a rare
constituent of urinary calculus.
=Hypoxanthin= (C_{5}H_{4}N_{4}O) is produced from fibrine in gastric and
pancreatic digestion and in putrefaction, and is especially abundant in
leucæmic subjects.
=Cyanuric Acid= (C_{20}H_{14}N_{2}O_{6}) occurs in dog’s urine.
=Leucin= (C_{6}H_{13}NO_{2}) and =Tyrosin= (C_{9}H_{11}NO_{3}) are
products of pancreatic digestion of proteids, and the former occurs
normally in the spleen, thymus, thyroid, liver, salivary glands, and
urine. Both are present in large amount, in the urine, in acute atrophy
of the liver. Test for leucin: Evaporate carefully to dryness with
nitric acid: the residue, if leucin, will be almost transparent and turn
yellow or brown on the addition of caustic soda. If now heated with the
soda it forms an oily drop. Test for tyrosin: treated with strong
sulphuric acid, gently warmed and chloride of iron added, it gives a
violet color.
=Albumen= is an important morbid constituent of urine, which appears in
a great variety of diseases (nephritis, pneumonia, epilepsy, anæmia,
leucæmia, diabetes, hæmaturia, hæmoglobinuria, hydræmia, infectious lung
diseases, cardiac obstruction, venous stasis in the kidney, dermatitis,
burns, lesions of the crura cerebri, floor of the fourth ventricle,
spinal cord, or renal vaso-motor nerves). It also occurs after violent
exertion, in poisoning by strong acid, phosphorus, arsenic, lead,
mercury, opium or alcohol, and when an excess of albumen is injected
into the blood. All forms of albumen may enter the urine, but the most
common are serum albumen, globulin of serum, propeptone and peptone. A
simple test is to acidulate the urine with acetic acid and boil: if the
precipitate does not dissolve on addition of nitric acid, it is albumen.
Sulphosalicylic acid added to the urine will cause a precipitate in
urine containing only ¹⁄₅₀₀₀₀ of albumen.
=Glucose= (C_{6}H_{12}O_{6}) is often normally present for a short
period in small amount after a full meal of farinaceous material. It is
permanently present in excess in glycosuria, which may result, among
other conditions, from diseased liver, punctured medulla, suppression of
milk secretion on weaning the calf, oil of turpentine, nitrobenzole,
nitrotoluol or amyle nitrate. Test: Add yeast to the urine and keep at
15° to 20° C. when if glucose is present, it becomes cloudy and gives
off carbon dioxide, or add a little caustic potash solution, and a few
drops of cupric sulphate solution until it is blue: then heat and a red
precipitate of cupreous oxide is thrown down. The amount gives the ratio
of glucose. Uric acid, hypoxanthin or mucus causes brown precipitate in
the absence of glucose: peptone, creatin, creatinine, pepsine and
urinary pigment prevent its formation though glucose be present.
=Bile Salts and Pigments= are present in excess in cases of icterus,
where these characters may be studied. See Icterus.
=Blood and Hæmoglobin in Urine.= In a variety of diseases (anthrax,
hæmaturia, nephritis, Texas fever, hæmoglobinuria, etc.) blood or blood
coloring matter escapes in the urine. When blood escapes one finds the
reddish color, and under the microscope red globules, normal or crenated
(especially in alkaline urine), free, aggregated in masses, in small
clots, or embedded in casts of the uriniferous tubes. Under the
spectroscope the spectrum shows two dark absorption bands, one in the
yellow and one in the green. When the color is due to hæmoglobin the
urine shows under the microscope numerous masses of amorphous brown
pigment, and the spectrum shows one dark line in the yellow, and three
others less deep, (but one of them very broad) on the limit of the green
and blue. Urine which contains the elements of blood is usually turbid
and thick or glairy, by reason of the presence of salts, albumen and
fibrine. There may also be crystals of urinary salts (calculi),
fragments of broken down tissue (tumors) or the ova of worms.
=Epithelium in Urine.= The slight cloud seen in healthy urine contains
epithelial cells. The source of these may be often determined under the
microscope. The _bladder epithelium_ are the most numerous, the largest,
and are squamous. Those from the _ureters_ and _renal pelvis_ are also
squamous, but neither so large nor so numerous. The _epithelium from the
uriniferous tubules_ are polyhedral with large nucleus or columnar. The
cells from the _male urethra_ are also largely columnar. In cases,
however, in which these cells are passed in large amount because of
catarrh of the mucosa all alike tend to assume the globular form with
large nucleus so that their true source cannot be certainly stated. It
is only from such cells as have become detached without change of form
that the seat of desquamation can be determined. If an excess of cells
approximating to the kidney type are associated with albuminuria and
cylindroid casts they become diagnostically significant. Polygonal cells
darkly granular with large oval nucleus and nucleolus suggest kidney
inflammation. If the granules are freely soluble in ether there is
probably fatty degeneration. If hard, tough and glossy they suggest (but
don’t prove) amyloid degeneration.
=Pus Cells in Urine.= Pus cells, with multiple nuclei revealed by adding
dilute acetic acid, may be found in small numbers in apparently healthy
urine. When present in large numbers, they usually indicate a catarrhal
affection of the mucosa, and especially pyelitis, cystitis, or
urethritis. There is always cloudiness, excess of mucin, and, in the
alkaline herbivorous urine, the liquid may be glairy or stringy.
=Casts of the Uriniferous Tubes.= These usually indicate the existence
of nephritis, yet they may be present in small numbers in the urine of
healthy individuals under a slight toxic action such as alcohol.
_Unorganized casts_ of urinary salts or hæmatoidin found in sucklings
appear to have no pathological significance. _Organized_ casts, on the
other hand, usually imply renal troubles, and especially inflammation.
As these will be fully described under Bright’s disease, it need only be
noted here that they may be composed in great part of _red globules_,
_leucocytes_, _epithelium_, _bacteria_, _granules_, a _homogeneous
wax-like matter_, _fat globules_, _hyaline matter_, or _urinary salts_.
The predominance of one or other of these determines the nature of the
cast.
The observations of Mayer, Knoll, Bovida, Von Jaksch and others seem to
show that the basis substance of urinary casts differs from all our
familiar proteids and must be considered as a distinct nitrogenous
compound, a derivative of one of the common proteids.